Monthly Archives: November 2014

European CIOs looking to integrate applications across public and private clouds will soon have a new option with a data orchestration service from Deutsche Telekom and Informatica.

With the growing popularity of cloud-based applications, the potential for data fragmentation has also increased, because apps running in-house aren’t going away. To help enterprises address this problem, Deutsche Telekom’s T-Systems unit has joined forces with integration software company Informatica.

The result is a hosted service designed to let companies integrate applications running in public and private clouds and on-premises environments. It lets enterprises move data between a database, CRM system or Hadoop-based big data application running on-premise and ones running in the cloud.

Cloud services designed specifically for particular industries are becoming more common, especially in highly regulated fields. That benefits companies such as Questcor Pharmaceuticals, which wanted a cloud-based CRM system but couldn’t find what it needed from one-size-fits-all vendors.

It may be a minnow in a market of whales, but Finnish cloud service company UpCloud is hoping that improving its storage performance and adding datacenter capacity in Chicago will make customers take a look.

The cloud arena has become very competitive, but there still is room for smaller companies that can find a way to stand out. While UpCloud, which expanded operations outside its native Finland last year, can’t compete with Amazon Web Services’ range of services, it believes it can still distinguish itself as a provider of cloud-based servers and storage.

“We believe very strongly that the cloud isn’t a commodity, because behind the price there are multiple decisions on how services are produced that all affect performance,” said CEO Antti Vilpponen.

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Crowdfunding is evolving into a mainstream funding mechanism that is becoming a way of testing markets, products and opportunities not only for start-ups but also industry giants, as Sony’s E-paper FES watch experiment shows.

Sony is in the midst of a strategic shift where the emphasis is on profitability from a few rich domains rather than having toe-holds in a multitude of markets.

Earlier this week it emerged the Japanese tech giant is to get out of low-end activities like TVs and mobile and will focus instead on high-end smartphones, its burgeoning PlayStation business and image sensors. The latter area is one in particular where Sony can rediscover its entrepreneurial and innovative edge.

If you know your technology history, Sony’s origins post-World War II were quite humble. Sony, a combination of the Latin word “Sonus” for sound with the American nickname for boys “Sonny”, began by focusing on one product, a transistor radio called the TR-55.

When they first started working together in an electronics shop in a department store in Tokyo, founders Masaru Ibuka and Akia Morita, had just US$530 in capital and a total of eight employees.

By the late 1950s they had cracked the US market as American teens began buying portable transistor radios in huge numbers. And thus a global technology conglomerate was born.

Eureka, as shouted by the crowd

If you look at start-ups who attempt to gain funding for ideas that range from the sublime to the ridiculous, they are looking for that one breakthrough moment where people “get” the idea and “want” the product. The cash is one aspect, but not the whole picture.

The exercise is as much about validation for the idea as it is about raising money and many companies who are backed by venture capitalists are being encouraged to float their ideas on sites like Kickstarter or Indiegogo as a way of proving the market is ripe for the opportunity.

In Sony’s case it emerged this week that it was behind the mysterious , the FES Watch is now available for pre-order with the first sales expected in May next year.

Sony’s foray into crowdfunding puts it in the likely vanguard of a whole new movement in technology where teams will validate, test and fund ideas using crowdfunding.

This is very much in keeping with the spirit being embraced by companies like Intel where engineers are being encouraged to embrace the maker’s revolution to nurture their inventive spark.

The new ‘rite of passage’ for inventors

The Sony experiment calls to mind comments made by Danae Ringelmann, founder and chief development officer of San Francisco-based crowdfunding site Indiegogo at the recent Web Summit.

Ringlemann pointed out that all sorts of people are now using Indiegogo, from entrepreneurs to artists, non-profits and activists.

But more telling, crowdfunding is now being considered a “rite of passage” for a product or idea, not just about raising cash.

“Indiegogo is becoming a permanent part of the financial ecosystem, not because it’s an alternative form of financing but because it is also an incredible risk mitigation strategy.

“Hardware entrepreneurs are using Indiegogo not just to get the funding to launch but also to mitigate their market and execution risks.”

If anything Ringlemann opined that crowfunding is being seen as a way of correcting an anomaly in finance systems, where because of the hierarchical and broken finance system ideas were going unborn every day.

She said the world is embracing “an open sustainable and scalable approach where all opportunities have a chance of rising to the top.”

We are entering an interesting time where the right to float ideas has been democratised and makers, from the inventor in his or her garage or bedroom to a passionate team hidden in the crowded ranks of a conglomerate, can make their ideas flourish.

Not one person will have the power to kill an idea. The crowd will decide. Bring it.

Vodafone is mulling over the opportunity to acquire cable player Liberty Global, which owns Virgin Media and UPC, in a massive takeover that will result in a global telecoms juggernaut worth over US$130bn.

It is a time of seismic shifts in the telecoms world as operators on a global level are seeking to marry up all their infrastructure to create a single network capable of quad play services – phone, internet, mobile and TV – whatever the location.

It is also talking to France Telecom and Deutsche Telekom about buying Everything Everywhere, such is its conviction it needs to return to mobile.

War games

Vodafone is understood to have sought advisors to consider a response to this new BT strategy that will place it on higher ground to face any onslaught in a telecoms world where quad play will be the only game worth playing.

Gigglebit is Siliconrepublic’s daily dose of the funny and fantastic in science and tech, to help start your day on a lighter note.

On its Facebook page this week, the Irish Air Corps took us on a trip down recent history lane: the big freeze of four years ago.

The Air Corps published fascinating aerial photographs of how Dublin and surrounding counties looked during the adverse weather conditions.

The Air Corps wrote: “This day four years ago snow started falling around Ireland and heralded the coldest November period on record. As temperatures struggled to rise above 0 degrees the Air Corps where called upon several times, using our aerial advantage to support those in need.

“Now as December approaches and the temperature drops another few degrees the different Squadrons around the Air Corps are refreshing themselves on their Cold Weather Operation Procedures.

“So, if the weather turns and the snow starts falling, we’ll be ready and waiting in the wings again for any calls for help.

“Our Photographic Section used some of these great photographs in our Winter Operations Brief to remind us what we could expect, we thought you may appreciate the reminder too.”